about the project The agricultural landscape in the Netherlands is changing rapidly. A lot of traditional farms disappear or are forced to adjust their way of working. In 2003, the ‘Jaar van de Boerderij’ (Year of the Farm) was organised to call attention to farmers and their farms. In relation to this SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) asked a number of Dutch and foreign photographers to create work on the theme ‘Boerderijgezichten’ (Faces of Farming).

Noritoshi Hirakawa was asked by SKOR to make his work in the province of Drenthe. He decided to live with a farmer’s family for a while. In the photographs Hirakawa made, he searched for poetic moments in the daily routine of the three generations living on the farm. The series is called ‘Dawn of Felicity’.

about artist and participants Noritoshi Hirakawa (1960) is a Japanese photographer. He lives and works in New York. In the past Hirakawa studied sociology and that background is visible in his photographs: they often focus on the communication between people and the way they deal with social norms and values. Hirakawa grew up on a farm.